Writing utensils, including wooden pencils, chalk, and crayons are used extensively by professionals, children, teachers, and "on-site" workers, such as construction workers and architects. There is, however, a need to protect writing utensils against damage and breakage, and also a need to extend the life of writing utensils to make them economically more efficient.
U.S. Pat. No 4,522,522 issued to Zeitelhack (June 1985) describes a multi-component pencil holder that is designed to limit the protrusion of the point of a standard wooden pencil. The pencil holder is also specifically designed to receive a replaceable eraser element. However, the Zeitelhack pencil holder cannot accept other writing utensils, such as larger and/or oval wooden construction pencils, crayons or chalk. Also, the Zeitelback holder is specifically designed to be a multi-component pencil holder. Such multi-component designs do not allow for unibody constructions, and thus do not have the added advantage of simplicity.
U.S. Pat. No 5,779,381 issued to Muelver (July 1998) describes a multi-component crayon holder that is designed to receive a crayon, and to further engage the crayon when an attached plunger pushes the crayon out of the opposing end opening. Once again, the Muelver holder is specifically designed to be a multi-component holder, much like the one described by Zeitelhack.
U.S. Pat. No 5,722,782 issued to Rosenthal (March 1998) and U.S. Pat. No 5,944,435 issued to Chai (August 1999) are also similar to the Zeitelhack and Muelver holders described above in that they are multi-component pencil holding devices. The Rosenthal device has a threaded inner surface and a chuck assembly that is designed to aid in dispensing the pencil. The Chai device has a control member mounted to the pencil holding apparatus so that the user may engage and dispense the pencil from one end of the holder.
Therefore, there is still a need to provide a single component apparatus that will protect different kinds of writing utensils, including larger and/or oval construction pencils, crayons, or chalk.
Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.